[Reader-list] IWE, genre and the New Weird - ii

[samit basu]

Rana Dasgupta, author of Tokyo Cancelled, on putting books into boxes:


Q: In publishing terms, you're seen as a 'literary' writer. But in
your first novel, you've used themes that relate fairly extensively to
the domain of speculative fiction - the memory database, the woman who
turns into a store, the relationship with a doll, and so forth. but
since your writing style puts you under 'literature', these influences
would then fall in the realm of 'magic realism', another imposed
classification to distinguish speculative-in-literary from
straightforward genre fiction, putting you into yet another artificial
pocket with writers like Margaret Atwood, Toby Litt and David
Mitchell. What are your thoughts on literary/publishing
classifications like 'mainstream' and 'genre'? If, under threat of
torture, you had to classify your own work, where would you place it
on the speculative/literary spectrum?

A: Frankly I find the game of categorization very boring, whether it
is by nation or "genre". It may have some function for people in
marketing, but it's of no interest to me in my own writing.  I write
something only because it seems to have a particular force to me, not
because it will satisfy the requirements of a particular genre, or
appeal to a certain kind of person.

In my personal view, books categorized as "science fiction" often meet
the standards of "literature" better than books categorized as
"literature" do.  This is because i have a particular idea of
literature.  for me, literature is philosophy: its purpose is not to
describe what we already know to be the case, but to create an
experiment with the imagination. Science fiction has always done this,
of course.  Moreover, "reality" now seems to be an entirely science
fiction-style project, and to eschew science fiction totally is often
to
retreat into some kind of improbable, and uninteresting, refuge.

I don't think serious writers have any business internalizing the
slogans and generalizations of industry.  To me it is entirely
destructive to their work.  It can only result in the censorship of
the imagination - because something does not fit easily within a
genre, or will be too complex for the imagined audience, etc.  It is
precisely in
the moments when one is surprised by one's own writing, or fearful of
its implications, that one reaches into spaces that are interesting
and enduring.


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…soon to be cross-posted, with hyperlinks, on http://samitbasu.blogspot.com